A special occasion demanded special performances.

In the 100th Tamil Nadu Premier League match hosted at the NPR College ground here, top-order batter B. Sachin (77, 45b, 6×4, 4×6) and leg-spinner Jhathavedh Subramanyan (4-0-10-3) joined the party as Vida Kovai Kings thumped Trichy Grand Cholas by 116 runs on Saturday.

Chasing 202, Grand Cholas were jolted early as medium-pacer Deeban Lingesh sent back skipper-opener J. Suresh Kumar for a duck in the first over. Left-arm spinner M. Siddharth dismissed Shyam Sundar, the centurion from the previous game, before Deeban returned to castle J. Kousik.

Kovai Kings went from strength to strength, with Jhathavedh disturbing Bhavan Suriya’s furniture to leave Grand Cholas reeling at 40 for four in the daunting chase.

Opener K. Rajkumar (32) was handed a reprieve in the eighth over when C. Andre Siddarth put him down at long-on off Prashid Akash. The debutant, however, found joy as he ended Jafar Jamal’s stay soon after.

Jhathavedh came back to remove K. Rajkumar, who could not capitalise on his ‘life’, and Antony Dhas to have the Trichy outfit staring down the barrel at 59 for seven.

R.S. Ambrish soon joined in the celebration, dismissing R. Rajkumar and Ganesh Moorthi as Shahrukh Khan’s Kovai Kings finally broke free of their three-match losing streak. Earlier, after the Kovai side was asked to bat, Sachin held the innings together while finding an able ally in Madhava Prasad (38 n.o.). The pair added 75 off 43 balls for the sixth wicket as Kovai Kings went past the 200-mark.

The scores: Vida Kovai Kings 201/6 in 20 overs (B. Sachin 77, Madhava Prasad 38 n.o., K. Easwaran 2/41) bt Trichy Grand Cholas 85 in 16.1 overs (K. Rajkumar 32, K. Deeban Lingesh 3/24, Jhathavedh Subramanyan 3/10, R.S. Ambrish 2/22).

Jhathavedh Subramanyan has been putting in the overs. Lots of them.

Since he began working with R. Ashwin around August last year, the Vida Kovai Kings leg-spinner has been bowling “20 to 25 overs” in a session, experimenting with his action and trying to make his leg-break a bigger weapon.

“I was doing a bit more volume. The thing about doing volume is that the more repetitions you do, the more avenue there is for experimentation,” he said at the TNPL here on Tuesday.

The 26-year-old has made a noticeable change to his load-up, gathering the ball closer to his body.

“That’s helped me rip the leg-break a little bit more without hampering the amount of turn for my googly. And it’s helped me get the ball more over the stumps,” he said.

The change is significant for a bowler whose googly had previously been his bigger turning delivery. He regarded his dismissal of the marauding N.S. Chaturved against Madurai Panthers as the best example. He outfoxed TNPL’s fastest centurion with a leg-break that the batter charged down to be stumped.

“It was a leg-break that turned almost five degrees. In previous seasons, I was turning my googly a lot,” he said.

For Jhathavedh, working with Ashwin remains special.

“I was really enjoying those sessions. There’s a lot of fun and a lot of smiling, which is very important, because, of course, as we all know, he has a great sense of humour.

“As a kid growing up in Hong Kong (his country of birth, which he’s represented), it was an absolute dream to meet Ashwin in the first place, and now to have him as my coach is incredible,” he said.